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Investors were also concerned by figures which showed the number of active users has also grown less quickly than expected.

Facebook shares have already been through a rollercoaster of ups and downs this year, with the biggest slump coming in April after it emerged data from tens of millions of users had been acquired by Cambridge Analytica.

Before today’s massive loss, Facebook's largest single-day drop came in July 2012 when it shed 11 percent.

Much of the latest drop in value has come from Facebook insiders selling more than $4bn worth of stock since details of the Cambridge Analytica data-mining scandal surfaced.

Facebook's shares plunged after the company's Q2 report was published (Image: YAHOO)

CEO Mark Zuckerberg accounted for the majority of this sell-off, parting with $3.5bn worth of shares according to Bloomberg.

The Facebook founder still owns a 13 percent stake in the company, but the slump in share price saw more than $12bn wiped from his net worth in just 24 hours.

David Wehner, Facebook’s chief financial officer, made a series of bombshell announcements yesterday when he warned markets the revenue slowdown will continue for some time.

He said: "Our total revenue-growth rates will continue to decelerate in the second half of 2018, and we expect our revenue growth rates to decline by high-single-digit percentages from prior quarters sequentially in both Q3 and Q4.